Category Archives: Meal Tips

The stress of wedding planning can derail even the greatest efforts to eat healthier, but every bride deserves to look and feel her best. If you’re headed down the aisle this year, stay on track with my pre-wedding diet tips, as featured in Brides!

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This Thursday, most Americans will kick off the holiday season with their first bite of Thanksgiving turkey. I personally love this time of year, but long shopping lines and mall crowds can be a total buzzkill. To calm down, try fueling up with my stress-relieving snack ideas, published in the December 2012 issue of Oxygen magazine!

The number of energy and protein bars on the market is astounding. Only a handful, however, should be promoted as satisfying, healthy snacks. The rest? Glorified candy bars. For example, most Clif Bars contain as much sugar as a TWIX Caramel Cookie Bar! Shocked? Me too.

If you’re looking for an on-the-go snack, choose bars with less than 200 calories. Any more than that and the bar becomes a meal replacement.

To keep hunger at bay the longest, opt for a bar with at least 5 grams of fiber and 10 grams of protein.

Select bars with less than 4-5 grams of sugar to avoid a post-snack drop in blood sugar that could zap your energy.

KIND and LÄRABAR rank among the most natural snack bars, made with the fewest and most recognizable ingredients. But what these brands lost in processing, they unfortunately gained in sugar. On the flip side, many low-sugar products use sugar alcohols (e.g. maltitol, mannitol) to boost flavor without adding calories. Many CarbRite Diet bars contain a whopping 20 grams! Sugar alcohols are not completely absorbed, however, so they may cause bloating, gas and even diarrhea when consumed in large amounts. You should experiment to know what your body can handle.

My top picks?

Quest Bar

HealthSmart Foods: Chocolite Protein Bar

Atkins Advantage (choose flavors with less saturated fat)

NuGo Slim

ThinkThin Crunch Bars

Next time you’re on the hunt for a pocket-friendly snack, remember the rules! More fiber. More protein. Less sugar.

Happy St. Patty’s Day!In honor of my Irish ancestors who subsisted on potatoes, I’m celebrating this holiday by highlighting the spud’s nutritional benefits. Potatoes are a humble vegetable, often judged by starch load and preparation method, instead of their rich potassium, fiber and antioxidant content!

The typical American diet is low in fruits and vegetables and, therefore, most of us consume only half the daily potassium recommendation (4,700 mg/day). Potassium is a mineral that plays a role in nerve function, muscle contraction and fluid and electrolyte balance. When combined with an effort to curb your sodium intake, high potassium consumption is associated with the prevention and reversal of high blood pressure. Bananas are a famous source of potassium, yet they contain only 50% of the whopping 844 mg of potassium that a baked Russet potato has to offer.

Put down the peeler! One of the healthiest parts of a potato is the skin, which is packed with fiber and antioxidants. The skin of a medium Russet potato packs 4 grams of fiber (20-35 gm/day is recommended). Fiber can help lower cholesterol, maintain bowel regularity, slow the absorption of carbs into your bloodstream and may decrease the risk of colon and rectal cancer.

Potatoes come in a variety of colors, from red, white and blue, to the orange flesh of a sweet potato. Phytochemicals are plant compounds responsible for these colored pigments. When they act as antioxidants, phytochemicals are thought to be beneficial in protecting against cancer and cardiovascular disease.

Despite their many health benefits, I’m not encouraging you to chow down on scalloped potatoes, French fries, or a baked tater stuffed with all the fixings! Nix the butter, bacon, cheese and sour cream toppings in exchange for steamed broccoli, sautéed onions, fresh herbs and Greek yogurt. I also suggest you try making oven-baked potato wedges. Slice an Idaho potato into 6-8 segments and toss in a bowl with olive oil and rosemary or thyme. Place wedges flat side down on a cookie sheet and bake at 400°F for approximately 20-30 minutes, flipping them at the half-way point. Alternatively, you can use the same technique to prepare bite-sized, oven-roasted, red potatoes (my personal favorite!)

I’m no fortune teller, but I’m 99% certain that next month, there will be a huge spike in the number of Internet searches associated with weight loss and dieting. Actually, Google Trends tells me this happens every January. The phenomenon is probably related to those of us hoping to shed the pounds we gained this holiday season by creating a New Year’s resolution to eat healthier and exercise more.

Yet shortly after we ring in 2012, most of us currently yearning for a fresh start will fall off the resolution bandwagon and resort back to our more indulgent, less active ways. I find that success is usually hindered by vague or extreme resolutions that are too difficult to carry out.

If you’re looking to create a resolution that’s built to last, try the tips I’ve outlined below:

1. Be specific. If you claim you’ll “exercise more often,” you’re not likely to stick to that plan. Instead, identify the type of exercise you’ll do and how often. How about this one? “I will walk for 20 minutes during my lunch break four days per week.”

2. Make it measurable. For example, “I will snack on one piece of fresh fruit daily.” This technique will help you judge if you’re following through on your commitment.

3. Set a realistic goal. Instead of saying “I want to lose 50 pounds,” aim for one pound per week and take it one step at a time. Losing just 5-10% of body weight can greatly improve your health. And, this amount can usually be achieved and maintained.

4. Put it on paper. By writing down your resolution, you’re turning a desire into a concrete goal. You may also want to note why you have this goal, which will help keep you motivated. If you want to lose weight, is it to improve the sleep apnea you’re suffering from? Or to be able to keep up with your energetic grandchildren?

5. Lastly, stay positive. Focus on things you can do, rather than things you shouldn’t. For example, instead of saying “I will not buy breakfast sandwiches on my way to work,” pledge to prepare your own breakfast four mornings per week. And if you slip up, go easy on yourself. Refocus by reviewing why you’re committed to your resolution.

Technically, Thanksgiving commemorates the day when pilgrims and Native Americans joined together to celebrate the autumn harvest. At my house though, Thanksgiving becomes an excuse to indulge in a great meal, watch professional football and catch some extra Zzz’s on the couch.

The excessive sleepiness that dominates this holiday has often been tied to a nutrient in turkey called tryptophan (trip-toe-fan). Even though our late-afternoon nap typically occurs right after the Thanksgiving feast, it’s probably not the turkey that’s making us drowsy. It’s more likely the carbohydrate-rich stuffing and mashed potatoes we just gobbled down.

Tryptophan is an amino acid that’s found in many protein-rich foods, like turkey. But if it was the turkey that was making us tired, we’d be nodding off every time we ate chicken, beef or certain kinds of fish too, since these foods contain similar amounts of this amino acid.

Now let’s talk science. Tryptophan is a precursor to a chemical substance called serotonin that acts on the nervous system. When tryptophan enters the brain, it’s converted to serotonin, which can make us feel calm and relaxed in large enough amounts. However, it’s actually a meal high in carbs that initiates this process. Large portions of carbohydrates cause a spike in insulin levels in our body, which makes tryptophan more available to the brain for conversion into sleep-inducing serotonin. Therefore, it’s likely the simultaneous consumption of delicious, high-carb side dishes, rather than the turkey that’s causing our drowsiness.